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Cyberpunk 2077 News – Arasaka Waterfront Image & Geralt Easter Egg?

A hidden image in some new Cyberpunk 2077 promotional statue images, as well as some new pictures of the 800 dollar statue itself, a hint which gives us some insight into a possible Geralt of Rivia Easter Egg, a podcast featuring developer details, More info on a New character we mentioned in the past & more will be showcased in today’s Cyberpunk 2077 news!

First up check out this new wallpaper tweeted out by CD PROJEKT RED. It shows Arasaka forces sieging a metro station stop, with V and his buddy in the foreground tuning out the white noise. Now I’ve showcased this before, when it was on the cover of PCGamer but now you can have this as a wallpaper. The size of the map has seemed to increase since the intial 2018 E3 trailer, notably in the north and the south. Also check out the Arasaka riot troops that we saw in the 4AM Grimes music video.

Next up we have a new promotional image from Sideshow, which is making high quality statues of Silverhand and V for Cyberpunk 2077. In this image, we see what appears to be an in-game screenshot of the Arasaka Waterfront. This is a location that seems to be dominated by Arasaka in the north of the map near Watson according to the metro map we have seen in the past.

Speaking of the statue this promotional ad is for, check out this new image of Sideshows Male and Female V with the Yaiba Kusanagi. Preorders of this come with a nice little Spiderbot statue, but at 800 dollars for the combo of both male and female v, this is most definitely for the most hardcore collectors.

Next we have a podcast featuring CDPR developers, Miles Tost and Philip Webber about the development of Cyberpunk and how things have changed since shifting to remote work.

First Miles and Philip mention that in shifting from office to home, there was a massive IT delivery service where over night hundreds of cars brought PCs to peoples homes, and that they could start work 2 hours after it was brought home.

The way they work on the game and assets haven’t changed much. They use a VPN to connect to the main data server and can download the stuff they want. If parts of the game get changed, members can check in to that content and others will notice.

Nearly every hour the system directly transforms the development version into the playable version of the game.

Miles Tost mentions that that some changes are really small and mentions an elevator bug where it did not stop where it was supposed to.
The fact that they are isolated means that they can no longer visit media offices with preview builds. They actually carried the game with a specific PC in a code locked briefcase, and the hard drive and the game was also password protected.

Moving on we have some updates to the IMDB page for Cyberpunk 2077, where information is typically fact checked to a certain standard before its posted. Recently some changes were made where it now shows Jacek Rozenek as being rumored to voice geralt in the game. Obviously Dock Cockle voiced Geralt in the English Witcher games and Rozenek was Geralts voice in the polish versions, so maybe there’s the potential for a polish easter egg here, or he’s doing the polish dubbing of a separate character.

Not only this but we have mentioned Doctor Paradox in a prior episode and made note that this was not a character I thought was in the lore. I did some more research and stumbled upon this countdown to the dark future episode where doctor paradox was mentioned as a big conspiracy media character.
In the dark future episode it mentions that “one of the longest running underground screamsheets before the 4th corporate war hit, doctor paradox’s mysteries printed or displayed as a collection of barely coherent rantings, post-modern poetry, and purposefully disturbing images designed to shake up the masses.
By 2020 Doctor Paradox began heavily promoting conspiracy theories, including a government plot to turn everyone into zombies with the help of an insane AI.

We also have some new Cyberpunk Red minis. Now as you know Mike Pondsmith will be in Cyberpunk 2077, and despite many thinking he is Dexter Deshawn this is not the case. With that being said we have a huge hint into what he could play, as RTalsorian revealed a Maximum Mike Cyberpunk red minature.

This is a big big hint of what Pondsmith’s role will be in game, as Rtalsorian and CDPR try to streamline the lore and characters between mediums.
The description of Mike is as follows “One of the old survivors of the NCPD still on the job, Maximum Mike tries to play by the book, enforcing the law and rooting out corruption. But he knows the law has its limits, so he’ll do what he has to to protect the innocent. When facing down the cities worst, his cyber-mastiff, max is always at his side.

This might put a pin in Mike lending his voice to his original character morgan blackhand as well.

CD PROJEKT RED & Keanu Reeves – The Bird & The Breeze!

In today’s video I wanted to highlight CD PROJEKT RED and Keanu Reeves and compare and contrast as to why they are a match made in heaven, who have both gotten to where they are by being authentic, down to earth, hard-working , devoted to the audience and consumer, and how Cyberpunk 2077 will be better because of it.

Let’s start off with the Incredible accomplishments + humble beginnings of Keanu Reeves and CD PROJEKT RED individually.
Keanu had a fairly rough childhood where his father left his family at the young age of 3, as well experiencing the loss of a childhood friend to a drug overdose just to name a few. Keanu had always loved Drama class and he eventually dropped out of high school to pursue his acting career, where he found his niche in action movies and had his big breakthrough in The Matrix as Neo and later as John Wick. These roles have reached such legendary status that the mere thought of Keanu and 90% of us instantly attribute him to one of these epic roles. The Matrix was my favorite action adventure movie through my childhood and so I know whenever I see him, despite the beard and long hair I still see Neo. As for people who have taken a loving to John Wick they see him as the unstoppable assassin avenging his wife and dog. This is the status that all Hollywood actors desire, to play a part so well it becomes deeply engrained in the minds of the audience long after the credits roll.

On the flipside, let’s take a look at CDPR. CD PROJEKT RED funnily enough started in an environment of the slim pickings of socialism in Warsaw. Marcin Iwinski and Michal Kicinski founded CD PROJEKT in May 1994 and were initially acting as a distributor of foreign video games for the domestic market. It wasn’t until 2002 that CD PROJEKT RED was formed where they started developing their Witcher games. By luck or fate they created the Witcher series based on reused code from a PC version of Baldur’s Gate: Dark alliance. Fast forward to 2015 and beyond and CD PROJEKT RED’s name is synonymous with attention to detail and the ability to blend narrative driven story telling with a sprawling RPG world.

Next Let’s dive into how Reeves and CDPR operate off the set and out of the Studio. On numerous occasions Keanu Reeves has taken paycuts for movies he has filmed in the past to allow for there to be a budget to hire actors who would fit that particular movie. Reeves took a 2 million paycut in The Devil’s advocate so that the studio behind it was able to hire Al Pacino as the lead. For a movie called The Replacements he took a whopping 90% pay cut so that Gene Hackman was able to be signed for the film. On the set of The Matrix, he gave a struggling set builder a 20k bonus to help make ends meet. He also bought employees who he thought were most deserving Harleys during the shooting of the second Matrix movie. Keanu also runs a private foundation that funnels money into a couple childrens hospitals and for cancer research.

Contrast this to how CDPR treats it’s community and nurtures it’s environment. CD PROJEKT RED has been steadfast in delivering incredibly high quality games to the consumer, DRM free. This is in essence means you could theoretically pirate the game and play it for free if you wanted to, and that there are no checks like internet connections or the need for discs to be present for you to enjoy their content. CD PROJEKT RED is also firm on not having predatory micro-transactions which is akin to gambling for kids and pillage the consumer for the benefit of the bottom line of profit. They treat their fans with respect. When it comes to treating staff, while there has been some sort of backlash on this subject, they have mentioned numerous times that employees leaving are a part of the process, and that game development is an industry not for everyone. Their future mission statements are even deeply steeped in the progression for their staff to be happy, healthy and creative.

Finally let’s talk about future expectations and growth mentality of Keanu and CD PROJEKT RED. Now obviously both of these entities have come together for a reason. CD PROJEKT RED has also stated that if it wasn’t Keanu, it wasn’t going to be anyone for his character in Cyberpunk 2077 Johnny silverhand. Not only is this due to the reasons that are apparent on the surface, acting chops, fitting the role, or bringing together people who focus on telling a raw story, it’s mainly because both Keanu and CD PROJEKT RED have “made it out” despite trials and tribulations, but It never changed their resolve. They both continue to go out, to forge, to create and to entertain. These are the types of companies and people that become a success but don’t uproot everything and everyone around them to do so.

I can’t think of a more dynamic duo in the gaming industry at the moment, if not for their raw talent, but for their support of their communities.